Gambia Parliament Rejects Bill To Lift Ban On Female Genital Mutilation

The parliament of Gambia on Monday rejected a bill against lifting the ban on female genital mutilation (FGM).

This comes after Gambian lawmakers supported recommendations to keep the country’s ban on FGM last week Monday.

The FGM repeal bill was voted against all the clauses in the proposed legislation, said the parliament speaker, Fabakary Tombong Jatta.

In March, the bill to lift the ban passed a second reading with only 5 out of 53 lawmakers voting against the bill, which led to pressure from human rights groups against the bill.

If the bill had been passed, Gambia would have been the first country to reverse the ban on FGM.

The third and final reading for the FGM ban to be repealed was scheduled to take place on July 24 but has now been stopped by the parliament after the majority voted against each of the repeal bill clauses. The parliament can call for a vote at the end of a debate.

Jatta, the parliament’s speaker, said the “Assembly cannot be engaged in such a futile exercise as to allow the bill to proceed to a third reading.

“The bill is rejected, and the legislative process exhausted.”

Since 2015, FGM has been illegal in Gambia, but the practice is still common in the West African country. August last year, the first convictions under the ban led to a backlash against the law.  The FGM convictions involved three women found guilty of cutting eight infant girls.

The conviction sparked anger among the public. As a result, independent lawmaker Almaneh Gibba proposed to annul the FGM ban bill in March.

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Emmanuel Ejiofor

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